Super Depressed

That makes it sound like I’m suicidal, which I’m not… I’m tired and not very productive, but this is more a case of, um, too much of a good thing.

There is an absolute shit-ton (technical term) of superhero stuff flooding in at the moment. The Killing Joke and Suicide Squad movies are both out next week. You Tube is drowning under the stuff coming out of SDCC… Arrrghhhh!

I am just not ready to write more Ultrahumans and I’m being bombarded with superheroes. At least it’s an entertaining form of torture.

I think I need a holiday. Probably somewhere without internet. Like Mars.

The Fox Resolution – Spoilers For Emergence

This post is related to a previous post, The Fox Dilema. It contains spoilers for Emergence, so if you haven’t read that book, stop reading now.

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The Less-Than-Lethal Joke

An admission: I am a comic fan who has not read a lot of ‘classic’ comics. My really big comic-buying period was in the eighties and I tended to stay away from many of the big names, though I did read the Ten Titans (back when they weren’t a joke) and the X-Men. Batman appears in my lists in Batman and the Outsiders and few other places, largely due to the old TV series. (In my Ultrahumans books, Night Shift is based on the Batman I saw in those earlier comics – a jerk in a suit – while Mink is representative of the slightly more modern Batman… Though the New 52 Batman is still a bit of a jerk.)

Anyway, I’ve never really felt the need to read a lot of the old classics because I knew the plots anyway. I have read Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, but I’ve never read Death in the Family (aka, Jason Todd is voted off Gotham Island) or The Killing Joke… until last night. With the animated film of The Killing Joke coming out soon there has been a plethora of review videos on YouTube dealing with the original comic, which everyone says I should read, so I picked up a copy on Comixology and I read it.

If you don’t want the story spoiled – it’s been 30 years people! – then stop reading here.

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Emergence Emerging

Emergence is up on Smashwords and Amazon.

Enjoy!

Emergence Cover Emerges

I am aiming to have Emergence in the (virtual) shops by tomorrow noon. Given my fractured sleeping habits of late this is no mean feat and it might happen sooner.

One of the things which has been keeping me up at night is the cover. Okay, that’s a lie, what’s been keeping me up at night is the airless atmosphere, but the cover has taken a while to produce. Not saying it’s my best ever, but it’s probably my most ambitious. This thing has five layers in it! For a professional artist that’s chicken feed, but I get nervous when I have more than one layer.

Anyway, I hope you like it, and that it gives some hints/confuses you regarding the book.

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I Hate Summer

That’s probably a bit strong, but summer gets to me. Summer, for those not in England, is something of a strange event. It’s kind of the same as winter, but warmer. Except that recently we’ve had drier winters. And then it turns around and boils you alive for two days before a sudden cold front blows in, just about the time you’d planned a picnic or you’re about to go on holiday to Brighton. (Brighton being a traditional place to holiday in England, though I couldn’t say why. I blame the Victorians.)

So, anyway, the weather is depressing. At night, it has a habit of remaining warm and humid. My sleeping habits could be described as ‘random at best’ most of the time, but recently my sleep has been more like the kind of thing chaotic system mathematicians salivate over. Add in a few other things that could be going better right now… sigh.

Why, you ask, am I telling you this? (If you haven’t asked then… I’m going to tell you anyway.) Well, my motivation is shot. The new Unobtainium book has stalled, partially because I had this other idea I want to flesh out a little, and partially because I can’t actually motivate myself to do much at all. This is a problem, but may not delay the book. It was slated for October anyway, and that’s plenty of time to get the thing in shape. I have two Fox Meridian books ready to go out this month and next which will hopefully keep you happy, and I might have something new to drop in later in the year because I think I’ll try a bit more of that sci-fi thing I mentioned to see whether the characters mesh before going back to Unobtainium-land.

This motivational issue is one of the reasons I’ve been quiet for a while. The other being that I didn’t have much to say. I should be reporting on the next Fox book soon, however. I’m going to need a cover… hmm.

Kissing Cousins?

Well, it was asked for and I’d already created this one, so…

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Frostburn Now

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For those waiting for the links:

Fox’s World Gets a Little Bit Closer

I failed miserably to get any sleep last night so I was up and watching the BBC’s web site when the news came in that we have voted to leave the EU. I don’t want to get heavily political or give away how I voted or anything, but… Da Fuck!

Anyway, in the universe Fox Meridian inhabits, the EU has broken up thanks to economic and climate pressures. The UK jumped ship prior to the union failing. What remains of the EU is basically the northern European countries, lead by German, and is known as the Nordeuropäische Union, the NU. Most of southern Europe is semi-arid and insolvent, hence the change.

This was based on various future timeline predictions which I did not make, but the way things were progressing in Europe and the rest of the world, it seemed a pretty viable future. We really don’t seem to be keen on fixing the climate, and the economic aspects of the EU are creaking. The refugee crisis has not helped. But… I figured I’d be dead or senile before it all started. Guess I was wrong.

This brought to you by the “We did what?!!” newsroom. Another post with book links coming up soon.

Frostburn Real Soon Now

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I’ve done the final edits and I’ll be creating the upload manuscripts this evening (when I’ve recovered). So, Frostburn should be available first thing tomorrow, or later tonight, depending on where in the world you are. I’ll post links tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the next Unobtainium book is currently called King Solamet’s Mines and it’s up to 11,300 words. Might change the title yet, but I think that one fits. It does give a fairly big hint about the plot, but then if you hadn’t figured that much out, you haven’t read the first book…